IT spending in Mena to reach $155.8b in 2017

Driven by strong surge in mobile phone expenditure, IT spending in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) is projected to reach $155.8 billion in 2017, a 2.4 per cent increase from 2016, according to the latest forecast by Gartner.
Analysts at the information technology research and advisory company said the key vertical segments driving IT spending growth include the communications, media and services, banking and securities, manufacturing and utilities markets.
The devices segment will represent nearly 17 per cent of total IT spending in 2017. This market is expected to grow four per cent this year, mainly due to a strong increase in mobile phone expenditure. Other devices, which include PCs, are forecast for negative growth.
Governments in the region are expected to spend $11.6 billion on IT products and services in 2017. The projected forecast includes spending on internal services, software, IT services, data centre systems, devices and telecom services.
Data centre systems will see an overall growth of six per cent in 2017, versus flat performance in 2016, due to increase in demand for servers and unified communications. Software spending is forecast to increase nine per cent, with enterprise application software projected to grow 13 per cent and infrastructure software spending to increase six per cent. IT services will post four per cent growth, with business IT services reaching nearly five per cent growth this year. Consumer mobile services will represent close to 60 percent of the total expenditures in communication services.
"The Mena region is moving in the right digital direction, where demand for the latest and most emerging technologies like Blockchain will continue to reflect the profound changes the IT markets are experiencing. The growing and influential role of business leaders toward embracing technologies and processes such as cloud, business intelligence (BI), analytics, customer relationship management (CRM), digital business and marketing, are contributing to fuel digital transformation," said Peter Sondergaard, senior vice-president and global head of Research at Gartner.
"A new type of infrastructure needs to be built that is not just going to reshape business, but also the way people live. CIOs are the builders of this infrastructure, which Gartner calls the 'civilization infrastructure'," said Sondergaard.
"Middle East user organisations must realise the next evolution of digitalization is here: the rise of the digital ecosystem - where enterprises, competitors, customers, regulators and other stakeholders form an interdependent business network."
CIOs will participate in the building of a new digital platform with intelligence at the center. That platform will enable ecosystems, connecting businesses and collapsing industries. Gartner analysts said it will change society itself, and the way people live.
The new digital platform consists of five domains: traditional IT systems, customer experience, The Internet of Things (IoT), an ecosystem foundation and the intelligence platform that ties all the domains together. - issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com